Higley USD approves revision to policy on approving novels
Screen capture from YouTube
Mary Davis, Higley USD's director of professional development, addresses the governing board about the process to approve novels and supplemental material for use in the classroom.
The Higley Unified School District Governing Board approved on July 23 revisions to its policy on textbook and supplemental material selection and adoption, including novels, but left alone its parental consent form on such materials.
While Vice President Anna Van Hoek asked about the inclusion of a check box on the form to notify parents when material had references to sexuality, Superintendent Sherry Richards said legal counsel recommended leaving the form as is.
“They (counsel) reviewed what we had proposed and gave me input that we should stick to what we have here with the understanding that this is common, this is common across the state of Arizona, and just possibly the difficulty in explaining what sexuality meant,” Richards said. “We would like to trust the committee process to bring anything that they are uncomfortable with or they don't feel is appropriate.”
However, the policy does include a reference with link to the state law that prohibits the referral of students to any sexually explicit materials with certain listed exceptions.
In the end, the board unanimously approved the revisions, which mostly updated the policy to ensure material selection committees comply with opening meeting law.
Mary Davis, the district’s director of professional development, presented to the board the process by which novels and supplemental material gets added to the district’s approved materials list.
It starts with the formation of a committee from a pool of applicants that includes district office staff, site administrators, teachers and parents/legal guardians/community members.
Requests to add materials for pre-kindergarten to 12th grade students or novels for sixth through 12th grade students are reviewed by the whole committee, and then subgroups are formed to review and evaluate selected materials and novels.
The reviewed content is judged by the subgroup members on appropriateness for the classroom and literary merit and also rated for the presence of: violence; sexually explicit content; smoking, drug use or alcohol; mental health/suicide; sensitive content to race and ethnicity; and offensive language.
Thereafter, the whole committee makes recommendations, which are given to the superintendent.
The materials and novels then are posted, after a first-read approval from the board, for a 60-day review by the public, after which they go before the board for a second-read approval and then can be added to a list on the district website.
The parental request form allows parents to give their consent for their student to read the novel or supplemental material or request an alternative for their student.
Van Hoek expressed concern about students being singled out and later bullied when their parents opt for their student not to read material or participate in a certain lesson, but Board Member Amanda Wade, a former teacher, and district administrators said the teachers’ professionalism allows them to be able to handle such situations with discretion.
The district also has a process by which materials already on the approved list can be requested for review and possible removal.
Secondary Education Executive Director David Loutzenheiser said the district’s intention is for the novel and supplemental material review to happen once a year with recommendations made by March. That, he said, would allow the 60-day review to happen in time for the board to approve new material and for that material to be procured in time for the new school year.
We would like to invite our readers to submit their civil comments, pro or con, on this issue. Email AZOpinions@iniusa.org. Tom Blodgett can be reached by email at tblodgett@iniusa.org or follow him @sp_blodgett on X.
Meet Tom Tom Blodgett joined Independent Newsmedia, Inc., USA, in 2022, when the company acquired Community Impact Newspaper's Phoenix-area properties. Raised in Arizona, he has spent more than 35 years in journalism in the state.
Community: He has served as an instructional professional in the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication since 2005, and is editorial adviser to The State Press, the university's independent student media outlet. He also is director of operations for an 18U girls fastpitch softball team from Gilbert.
Education: Arizona State University with a BS in Journalism.
Random Fact: He lived in Belgium during his freshman year of high school.
Hobbies: Tweeting enthusiastically about ASU softball (season-ticket holder) and grumpily about other local sports (pessimistic fan).
By 
Comments
No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here